


You Got a Minute?

by OSuzanne (Emiline)



Category: Monk - Fandom
Genre: Episode Scene Expansion, F/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-18
Updated: 2009-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-05 17:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emiline/pseuds/OSuzanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One scene from the seventh season episode "Mr. Monk on Wheels" which fueled my imagination, so I wrote in Stottlemeyer's thoughts behind it. Monk/Natalie, sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Got a Minute?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my revised version of the scene in "Mr. Monk On Wheels" where they're at the graveyard and Stottlemeyer steps in to give Natalie a break and Monk a talking to. All the spoken dialogue in this fic is taken from that episode, and is not my creation. Everything else, however, is the product of my imagination.  
> Monk belongs to Andy Breckman and NBC.

"You got a minute?" Stottlemeyer asked.

Adrian looked at him incredulously. "Yeah, I have a minute, I'm in a wheelchair."

Stottlemeyer launched into his lecture.

"Look I know that this is tough but this is tough on Natalie too. You see this guy here? That's the guy that shot you, the guy in the body bag!"

Monk made a noise of discomfort and started wiping his shoulder.

"And you're madder at her than you are at him," Stottlemeyer continued.

"She hasn't said anything," Monk said, somewhat surprised.

_Damn the man for being so imperceptive,_ Stottlemeyer thought. _Why is it Monk, that when it comes to Natalie you can't see anything that's really going on? You see everything else!_ "Of course she hasn't said anything" Stottlemeyer yelled, exasperated. "She blames herself for what happened! She lo—" he cut himself off mid-word. _She loves you, Monk. And you're too damn selfish to see it. _But he knew he couldn't tell Monk that, not now. So he shut his mouth, took a deep breath and tried again.

"Look, I know you caught a bad break, I'm sorry you're in pain I'm sorry you're miserable, sorry, sorry, sorry but you can't  keep taking it out on her."

Stottlemeyer was really angry now. Though Monk was watching him closely he gave no indication that he realized how serous this was, and that really pissed off the Captain.

"Listen, Detective Monk. Be very careful because you're that close—" he held his fingers a hairbreadth's apart "—to losing that girl." He dropped his hand. "Ask me how I know," he demanded.

Monk shifted his eyes down and back up. He finally looked worried and a little uncomfortable. _Maybe I'm finally getting through that thick skull of his,_ Stottlemeyer thought.

"How do you know?" Monk asked a hint of trepidation in his voice

Stottlemeyer couldn't tell Monk that Natalie was in love with him.

"Cause you're acting like me." But he could tell Monk that much, and hope Monk would make the connection himself. Captain Stottlemeyer looked hard at his friend, and then walked off.

**Author's Note:**

> When I first saw this episode I was convinced that the word Stottlemeyer cuts himself off on started with a "luh", and I automatically assumed that he was going to say "loves you". Which is of course, open to interpretation, and even if he was going to say that, it doesn't necessarily follow that she is _in_ love with him. What can I say? I find Monk and Natalie's relationship in the show to be complex and difficult to pin to down exactly, and fascinating. Sometimes I think there's some small romantic pull between them, and sometimes I think there isn't, and that it's something else entirely.


End file.
